Mistletoe
by Piper Emerald
Summary: The TARDIS lands in Cardiff after the events of Voyage of the Damned, and it doesn't take long for Jack to find the Doctor. Oneshot, AU, Cardfic. (I own nothing.)


The Doctor hadn't planned on refueling the TARDIS that night. In fact, the last thing he wanted was to have to spend time sitting in the middle of Cardiff. Not that there was anything wrong with Cardiff, he just didn't like the idea of staying still. He wanted to get his mind off of the Titanic off of everything that had happened to him in the past few day (or past year depending on how you look at it).

So when the TARDIS landed itself, he didn't stop himself from groaning. However, he knew better than to try to make her leave, and maybe a few hours of not heading into danger would do him good. Still, he wasn't just going to sit by the console until the TARDIS decided they could go. Grabbing his coat, he opened the doors and stepped outside.

He was met by a rush of cold air, but being a little chilly didn't bother him. As he looked around him, he was reminded of the date by the festive lights and rich smell of pine. Although it was well into the night, store and restaurant windows were still lit. The streets were not very busy, in fact there were only a few people around. He didn't mind though, he hadn't come here to talk. Well, _he_ hadn't meant to come here at all.

* * *

Jack had given his team the day off, but he had been working in the Hub despite their absence. When he had heard the TARDIS, he had sprang from his desk, nocking his chair over. It didn't take long to locate the blue box once he was outside, but when he pulled on the door handles he found that the door was locked shut.

"Doctor?" He called, but there was no answer. After a moment of mental debate, he pulled the TARDIS key from his pocket and inserted it into the lock. The console room was empty, and it didn't take long for Jack to realize that the Doctor wasn't there.

Jack left the TARDIS, he doubted that the Doctor had gone too far, considering there wasn't anything dangerous going on in the city that he knew of.

* * *

The Doctor had been wandering for what felt like half an hour, and had decided that this was one of the worst ways to get his mind off everything that had happened. The silence only gave him the chance to reflect, and he could feel his melancholy growing. A cold wind brushed past him, and he dug his hands into his pockets, to keep them from freezing. He could hear Christmas music in the distance, but couldn't quite recognize the song.

"Hey, handsome." The Doctor nearly jumping when a familiar voice broke through his thoughts. He spun around, his eyes meeting Jack's usual grin. "What are you doing here?"

"It seems the TARDIS is rather fond of this place." The Doctor stated, and Jack let out an over exaggerated sigh of relief.

"So no alien invasion that slipped the Rift alerts?" There was a humor in Jack's voice.

"Not today, Captain." The Doctor answered with a slight chuckle.

"May I walk with you?" Jack asked cordially.

"If you want." The Doctor answered. "How long has it been?" He asked after they started walking.

"What?" Jack looked at him with confusion for a moment, before it clicked. "You mean since I left you and Martha?"

"Yeah."

"A few months. How long has it been for you?" Jack asked and the Doctor hesitated.

"Well, you know. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey, can't expect me to keep tract of it all the time. I mean you don't get the chance to write everything down in the TARDIS, and forget keeping a calendar. Besides that would take all the fun out of it." Jack cleared his throat to stop the Doctor's rambling.

"Doctor..."

"A day," the Doctor confessed. "After I dropped Martha off, the TARDIS crashed into the Titanic. Well, not _the _Titanic, but mind you it was a pretty conniving look a like. That is, if you don't count the fact that it was in space and the original was in the water. And the outcome wasn't much different either-"

"Doctor." Jack put a hand on his shoulder. "You're rambling."

"Yes I am," the Doctor agreed with what was actually a genuine smile.

"What do you mean you dropped Martha off?" Jack asked, and the smile faded.

"Everyone has to leave in the end, Jack." He added a little more downcast: "Once they grow up."

"I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about," the Doctor forced cheer back into his voice. "She chose what she felt was best for her."

At the point another wind pushed past them, this one was colder and caused the Doctor to openly shiver. Jack wrapped and arm around him. The grin back on his face, although it not longer seemed as happy-go-lucky.

"Gets pretty cold out this time of year, snows sometimes if we're lucky." He thought for a moment. "No, I take that back. Weevil hunting is hell in the snow."

"I wasn't planning on landing in the winter," the Doctor muttered. "Or in Cardiff for that matter."

"Then where were you going?" Jack asked.

"Everywhere, anywhere," the Doctor answered, but then mustered a serious answer. "Somewhere distracting."

* * *

Jack only nodded. It had been a busy few months for him, but that had been just what he had needed. You don't have time to reflect on what's happened to you when you're to busy trying to save the world. He knew that had been the Doctor's coping mechanism, but he also knew that it didn't always work.

"You can't run from everything." Jack's eyes widened, he hadn't meant to say that out loud! The Doctor didn't seem to notice this. His expression was not one of offense, like Jack had thought it would be, but one of deep melancholy.

"I know," he said softly, braking away to walk a few steps in front of Jack. "But I can try."

"I'm sorry," Jack caught up to him with two large strides. "I didn't mean to say that."

"It's ok."

"Can I come with you?" Jack asked suddenly, surprising even himself. Where had that come from? He couldn't just disappear on his team again. Well, the TARDIS was a time machine, so he could be gone for as long as he wanted and be back in only a few hours.

This won the Doctor's attention. He stopped walking, and turned to face Jack, their eyes locked in contact. "Really?"

The disbelief in his voice tool Jack by surprise. If anything, he had thought that the Doctor would have expected him to ask this. "Yes." He said without a second of hesitating. "I mean, if you'll let me."

"But what about Torchwood?" The Doctor asked.

Jack shrugged. "They can manage without me." Could they? He supposed that they had lasted well enough without him the first time, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to leave the Doctor in this darker state.

"Yes, yes, of course you can come." The Doctor looked the happiest that Jack had seen him all night. The Doctor broke their eye contact to turn back towards the way that they had come. "The TARDIS should be ready by now. Where do you want to go?"

"Everywhere," Jack grinned. "Anywhere."

"Not running to, are you?" The Doctor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I was," Jack said with a sigh. "But I think I've just made a U turn."

They walked back in silence. Jack knew that he should go back to the Hub and leave some sort of message telling his team that he was going, but he was afraid that if he was gone for long enough the Doctor would change his mind and leave without him. He almost hated himself for knowing that he would rather take the chance of his team hating him than the chance of the Doctor abandoning him again.

Soon they had made it back to the TARDIS, and Jack noticed that the Doctor was still smiling. "Your mood certainly changed." He remarked.

"Sometimes things just seems better with company." The Doctor told him, opening the TARDIS doors.

Jack was about to walk inside when he noticed what was hanging from the TARDIS doorway. He chuckled, knowing that it wasn't the Doctor who had put it there. "Did I ever tell you how clever your ship was?"

The Doctor's brow furrowed for a moment, most likely wondering why Jack was suddenly praising the TARDIS. Then he followed Jack's line of vision, his eyes stopping on the mistletoe that was tied (he had no idea how) to the top of the TARDIS's doorway. He looked like he was about to say something, but was searching for the right words.

That was when Jack leaned in, cupping the Doctor's cheek with one hand, and wrapping his other arm around his waist. He was more than a little surprised that the Doctor didn't pull away. After what might have been the longest, most enjoyable moments of Jack's very long life, he finally stepped away.

He wanted to tell the Doctor how long he had longed to do that. How long he had waited and how long he would have still waited. Jack wanted to tell him how deeply he cared about him. He took a breath and opened his mouth to speak, but didn't get the chance to get the words out, before the Doctor had pulled him into the TARDIS.

Maybe talking could wait for a bit.

* * *

**Merry Christmas my fellow Whovians! Thank you for reading, please review! **


End file.
